It's not been that long since I took a look at NVIDIA's new Socket A chipset platform for AMD processors, nForce2 and in that time the boards have arrived as promised from their launch partners and the dust has had time to settle a little. We've been able to look at the partner offerings in a bit more detail and see what they've been able to deliver.

MSI are a company we're happy to have a good relationship with at Hexus and we invariably take a look at their launch products and this time around is no exception. They were kind enough to ship their K7N2-L first generation nForce2 board and being generally impressed with previous MSI boards, it's always interesting to see their wares.

MSI are a pretty string NVIDIA launch partner, indeed we hear they'll be one of the first on the shelves in January with a GeForce FX board so it was no surprise to see a pair of nForce2 offerings from MSI.

For those unfamiliar with nForce2, here's a quick rundown.

It's a chipset based on the regular x86 chipset premise of a pair of functional bridges to provide system services. NVIDIA calls the bridges the IGP/SPP (Integrated Graphics Processor/System Platform Processor or what's usually called the northbridge) and the MCP (Media and Communications Processor or southbridge).

The IGP/SPP provides AGP controller and interface, dual 64-bit memory controllers and interfaces, the CPU controller and interface and a HyperTransport interface to link to the MCP. In the case of the IGP you also find an integrated graphics core for onboard video support.

Currently all shipping nForce2 solutions, including the MSI, are SPP based with no onboard video. The AGP controller on nForce2 is AGP3.0 compatible with a full AGP8X interface for cards supporting that standard.

The MCP, largely unchanged from its appearance with nForce1, takes care of everything else. With a HyperTransport link to the SPP, the MCP implements the lauded audio hardware the bridge is famous for, a PCI controller, IDE controller supporting ATA133, USB2.0 and Firewire controllers, dual Ethernet MAC's (NVIDIA + 3COM) to support dual Ethernet connections with no extra hardware and the various other less well known interfaces including HomePNY.

So with a dual channel DDR memory controller, dual Ethernet capability and support for the very latest and greatest PC technologies and AMD's newest 333MHz front side bus processors, it surely makes nForce2 the most exciting chipset for AMD processors at the moment.

It all depends on what each board implements.